Archaea by Dain White

Author:Dain White
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Published: 2011-12-23T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

I was glued to the targeting consoles every waking moment, and determined to succeed in my new role aboard the Archaea. In a way, this was not unlike guard duty, or walking a post, and was a perfect role for a motivated Marine.

Janis coded targets based on threat using gray through orange for environmental targets like meteorites, rocks, and meteroids. Orange targets were slated for destruction and given a Sierra designation. These were objects of unremarkable mass and unremarkable movement characteristics, guilty of the crime of being in our way as we punched a hole through the system.

I was primarily watching for red targets, hostile targets. Classified with a Master designation, these were targets that exhibited movement characteristics that were intentionally hostile, like maneuvering to maintain a collision course.

I didn't stay on station continually of course – we had to eat. Life aboard the Archaea relaxed a bit. We were still at condition Yoke with hatches closed, but movement through the ship was unrestricted. I was able to spend a little time in my stateroom, and the captain even spun up the rings so we could eat normally and sleep in a normal bed. We congregated at watch changes in the wardroom, galley, and in the companionways through the core of the ship passing from one ring to the other.

The rest of the leg we had through the Danaan Fields passed quickly. For the most part hauling along at the same insanely high velocities we attained during our evasive run, apparently testing Janis' preaction times and the Archaea's responsiveness at the same time. Throughout the high-speed run, Janis initiated point-defenses and provided automatic response for the turrets.

The routine on ship started to solidify. Captain Smith had us on a more aggressive two-by-four watch rotation, but it wasn't too hard for all of that. We'd spend four hours on watch, with four hours off, repeat that, and then spend 2 hours on and off with a repeat of that – then the schedule would start over, with another four hours on. The captain didn't seem to ever leave the helm, and he didn't ever slow down or take a break.

Pauli and I were under specific orders as we came on watch to bring a fresh reload for the coffee, which I think our captain must be using for blood by now. I have a hard time with the stuff, I always have. I get too edgy, too short-fused. Not our captain. He would drink the stuff non-stop. Hot, cold, iced, sweetened, bitter, even salted in some crazy navy tradition – I can't think of any time where he didn't have coffee at hand.

My watch duties were pretty much good to go. I provided overwatch of sorts for the targeting and fire-solutions Janis continually provided, and kept the bridge up to speed on her progress. I also watched communications, but there wasn't much to do with comms in this backwater sector of the galaxy. Nothing here but us, rocks, rock dust,

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